Five things for pharma marketers to know: Tuesday, October 20, 2015

1. Schizophrenia patients who receive one-on-one talk therapy and family support along with smaller doses of antipsychotic drugs make greater strides on the road to recovery in the first two years of treatment than those who simply get higher doses of drugs, reported The New York Times. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last Friday endorsed a combined-therapy approach in its guidelines.

2. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton continued her attack against Turing Pharmaceuticals, reported Reuters. She contacted both the FDA, urging it to figure out ways to bring generic drugs to market more quickly, and the FTC, asking it to examine price gouging in the pharmaceutical industry and by Turing specifically. Turing has come under sharp criticism for its price hike for Daraprim, a drug it acquired. Turing's CEO has said the company will lower the price but has not specified by how much.

3. The FDA may approve many toxic drugs to treat cancer that do not improve overall survival rates, according to the authors of a new JAMA Internal Medicine study, reported Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel. Two-thirds of new cancer drugs approved in the past five years were okayed even though they did not extend or improve the life of patients, the study contended.

4. Bayer is hunting for a digital creative and media AOR to consolidate work for its Consumer Care division, reported Advertising Age. The brands include Aspirin, Claritin, Afrin, Aleve, Midol and One A Day. Bayer said in the RFP that it is shifting its marketing spending from traditional television advertising “to a channel-agnostic organization that maximizes digital,” according to Ad Age. Bayer already has consolidated work for its Merck brands, which it bought a year ago, with Omnicom Group's Energy BBDO and WPP's JWT.

5. The pharmaceutical industry is up in arms about provisions in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal because it would cut the number of years pharma companies have exclusive rights to their clinical trial data for new biologics, reported The Hill. US law currently grants 12 years of exclusive rights. The trade deal would cut that to eight years. The industry said it is still formulating its lobbying strategy on the pact.